Browse publications by year: 2014

Fulltext Identification and in vitro antimicrobial susceptibility of Brucella species isolated from human brucellosis

Hashim R, Ahmad N, Mohamed Zahidi J, Tay BY, Mohd Noor A, Zainal S, et al.

Int J Microbiol, 2014;2014:596245.
PMID: 25120569 DOI: 10.1155/2014/596245

Brucellosis is a world-wide zoonotic disease with a major impact on the public health. Due to the high risk of laboratory acquired infection, limited laboratory investigations were performed on this organism, including detailed identification and susceptibility study. Brucella melitensis is the commonest aetiological agent for human brucellosis in this region. The in vitro susceptibility pattern against selected antimicrobial agents was assessed using E-test. All isolates were noted to be sensitive to all the antimicrobial agents tested except for rifampicin where elevated MIC > 1 μg/mL was noted in 30 out of 41 isolates tested.

MeSH terms: Animals; Anti-Infective Agents; Brucellosis; Humans; Public Health; Rifampin; Zoonoses; Brucella melitensis
Fulltext Validity and reliability of the Bahasa Melayu version of the Migraine Disability Assessment questionnaire

Shaik MM, Hassan NB, Tan HL, Bhaskar S, Gan SH

Biomed Res Int, 2014;2014:435856.
PMID: 25121099 DOI: 10.1155/2014/435856

BACKGROUND: The study was designed to determine the validity and reliability of the Bahasa Melayu version (MIDAS-M) of the Migraine Disability Assessment (MIDAS) questionnaire.
METHODS: Patients having migraine for more than six months attending the Neurology Clinic, Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kubang Kerian, Kelantan, Malaysia, were recruited. Standard forward and back translation procedures were used to translate and adapt the MIDAS questionnaire to produce the Bahasa Melayu version. The translated Malay version was tested for face and content validity. Validity and reliability testing were further conducted with 100 migraine patients (1st administration) followed by a retesting session 21 days later (2nd administration).
RESULTS: A total of 100 patients between 15 and 60 years of age were recruited. The majority of the patients were single (66%) and students (46%). Cronbach's alpha values were 0.84 (1st administration) and 0.80 (2nd administration). The test-retest reliability for the total MIDAS score was 0.73, indicating that the MIDAS-M questionnaire is stable; for the five disability questions, the test-retest values ranged from 0.77 to 0.87.
CONCLUSION: The MIDAS-M questionnaire is comparable with the original English version in terms of validity and reliability and may be used for the assessment of migraine in clinical settings.

MeSH terms: Adult; Demography; Disability Evaluation*; Female; Humans; Malaysia; Male; Migraine Disorders/diagnosis*; Surveys and Questionnaires/standards*; Reproducibility of Results
Fulltext A synchronous-asynchronous particle swarm optimisation algorithm

Ab Aziz NA, Mubin M, Mohamad MS, Ab Aziz K

ScientificWorldJournal, 2014;2014:123019.
PMID: 25121109 DOI: 10.1155/2014/123019

In the original particle swarm optimisation (PSO) algorithm, the particles' velocities and positions are updated after the whole swarm performance is evaluated. This algorithm is also known as synchronous PSO (S-PSO). The strength of this update method is in the exploitation of the information. Asynchronous update PSO (A-PSO) has been proposed as an alternative to S-PSO. A particle in A-PSO updates its velocity and position as soon as its own performance has been evaluated. Hence, particles are updated using partial information, leading to stronger exploration. In this paper, we attempt to improve PSO by merging both update methods to utilise the strengths of both methods. The proposed synchronous-asynchronous PSO (SA-PSO) algorithm divides the particles into smaller groups. The best member of a group and the swarm's best are chosen to lead the search. Members within a group are updated synchronously, while the groups themselves are asynchronously updated. Five well-known unimodal functions, four multimodal functions, and a real world optimisation problem are used to study the performance of SA-PSO, which is compared with the performances of S-PSO and A-PSO. The results are statistically analysed and show that the proposed SA-PSO has performed consistently well.

MeSH terms: Algorithms*; Computer Simulation; Mass Behavior; Models, Theoretical*; Numerical Analysis, Computer-Assisted*; Stochastic Processes*
Fulltext Towards dynamic remote data auditing in computational clouds

Sookhak M, Akhunzada A, Gani A, Khurram Khan M, Anuar NB

ScientificWorldJournal, 2014;2014:269357.
PMID: 25121114 DOI: 10.1155/2014/269357

Cloud computing is a significant shift of computational paradigm where computing as a utility and storing data remotely have a great potential. Enterprise and businesses are now more interested in outsourcing their data to the cloud to lessen the burden of local data storage and maintenance. However, the outsourced data and the computation outcomes are not continuously trustworthy due to the lack of control and physical possession of the data owners. To better streamline this issue, researchers have now focused on designing remote data auditing (RDA) techniques. The majority of these techniques, however, are only applicable for static archive data and are not subject to audit the dynamically updated outsourced data. We propose an effectual RDA technique based on algebraic signature properties for cloud storage system and also present a new data structure capable of efficiently supporting dynamic data operations like append, insert, modify, and delete. Moreover, this data structure empowers our method to be applicable for large-scale data with minimum computation cost. The comparative analysis with the state-of-the-art RDA schemes shows that the proposed scheme is secure and highly efficient in terms of the computation and communication overhead on the auditor and server.

MeSH terms: Algorithms*; Computer Simulation; Models, Theoretical*; Research Design*; Information Storage and Retrieval/methods*; Computer Security*; Information Management/methods*
Fulltext Intrastrain comparison of the chemical composition and antioxidant activity of an edible mushroom, Pleurotus giganteus, and its potent neuritogenic properties

Phan CW, David P, Tan YS, Naidu M, Wong KH, Kuppusamy UR, et al.

ScientificWorldJournal, 2014;2014:378651.
PMID: 25121118 DOI: 10.1155/2014/378651

Two strains of Pleurotus giganteus (commercial and wild) were tested for their ability to induce neurite outgrowth in rat pheochromocytoma (PC12) and mouse neuroblastoma-2a (N2a) cells. Treatment with the mushroom extracts resulted in neuronal differentiation and neuronal elongation, but not nerve growth factor (NGF) production. Linoleic acid (4.5-5.0%, w/w) which is a major fatty acid present in the ethanol extract promoted NGF biosynthesis when augmented with low concentration of NGF (5 ng/mL). The two strains of mushroom were found to be high in protein (154-192 g kg(-1)), total polysaccharides, phenolics, and flavonoids as well as vitamins B1, B2, and B3. The total phenolics present in the mushroom extracts were positively correlated to the antioxidant activity (free radical scavenging, ferric reducing power, and lipid peroxidation inhibition). To conclude, P. giganteus could potentially be used in well-balanced diet and as a source of dietary antioxidant to promote neuronal health.

MeSH terms: Amino Acids/analysis; Animals; Antioxidants/analysis*; Ascorbic Acid/analysis; Cell Differentiation/drug effects; Chromatography, Gas; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; Fatty Acids/analysis; Flavonoids/analysis; Malaysia; Phenols/analysis; Polysaccharides/analysis; Tissue Extracts/analysis; Tissue Extracts/pharmacology*; Neurites/drug effects*; Neurites/physiology; Linoleic Acid; Pleurotus/metabolism; Pleurotus/chemistry*; Nerve Growth Factor/biosynthesis; Cell Line, Tumor; Mice; Rats
Fulltext Estimating body related soft biometric traits in video frames

Arigbabu OA, Ahmad SM, Adnan WA, Yussof S, Iranmanesh V, Malallah FL

ScientificWorldJournal, 2014;2014:460973.
PMID: 25121120 DOI: 10.1155/2014/460973

Soft biometrics can be used as a prescreening filter, either by using single trait or by combining several traits to aid the performance of recognition systems in an unobtrusive way. In many practical visual surveillance scenarios, facial information becomes difficult to be effectively constructed due to several varying challenges. However, from distance the visual appearance of an object can be efficiently inferred, thereby providing the possibility of estimating body related information. This paper presents an approach for estimating body related soft biometrics; specifically we propose a new approach based on body measurement and artificial neural network for predicting body weight of subjects and incorporate the existing technique on single view metrology for height estimation in videos with low frame rate. Our evaluation on 1120 frame sets of 80 subjects from a newly compiled dataset shows that the mentioned soft biometric information of human subjects can be adequately predicted from set of frames.

MeSH terms: Body Weights and Measures/methods*; Humans; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted/methods; Security Measures; Video Recording*; Biometric Identification/methods*
Fulltext Reconfigurable ring filter with controllable frequency response

Ab Wahab N, Mohd Salleh MK, Ismail Khan Z, Abd Rashid NE

ScientificWorldJournal, 2014;2014:671369.
PMID: 25121132 DOI: 10.1155/2014/671369

Reconfigurable ring filter based on single-side-access ring topology is presented. Using capacitive tuning elements, the electrical length of the ring can be manipulated to shift the nominal center frequency to a desired position. A synthesis is developed to determine the values of the capacitive elements. To show the advantage of the synthesis, it is applied to the reconfigurable filter design using RF lumped capacitors. The concept is further explored by introducing varactor-diodes to continuously tune the center frequency of the ring filter. For demonstration, two prototypes of reconfigurable ring filters are realized using microstrip technology, simulated, and measured to validate the proposed concept. The reconfigured filter using lumped elements is successfully reconfigured from 2 GHz to 984.4 MHz and miniaturized by 71% compared to the filter directly designed at the same reconfigured frequency, while, for the filter using varactor-diodes, the frequency is chosen from 1.10 GHz to 1.38 GHz spreading over 280 MHz frequency range. Both designs are found to be compact with acceptable insertion loss and high selectivity.

MeSH terms: Electronics/instrumentation*; Equipment Design; Telecommunications/instrumentation*; Electric Capacitance*
Fulltext Stochastic optimized relevance feedback particle swarm optimization for content based image retrieval

Imran M, Hashim R, Noor Elaiza AK, Irtaza A

ScientificWorldJournal, 2014;2014:752090.
PMID: 25121136 DOI: 10.1155/2014/752090

One of the major challenges for the CBIR is to bridge the gap between low level features and high level semantics according to the need of the user. To overcome this gap, relevance feedback (RF) coupled with support vector machine (SVM) has been applied successfully. However, when the feedback sample is small, the performance of the SVM based RF is often poor. To improve the performance of RF, this paper has proposed a new technique, namely, PSO-SVM-RF, which combines SVM based RF with particle swarm optimization (PSO). The aims of this proposed technique are to enhance the performance of SVM based RF and also to minimize the user interaction with the system by minimizing the RF number. The PSO-SVM-RF was tested on the coral photo gallery containing 10908 images. The results obtained from the experiments showed that the proposed PSO-SVM-RF achieved 100% accuracy in 8 feedback iterations for top 10 retrievals and 80% accuracy in 6 iterations for 100 top retrievals. This implies that with PSO-SVM-RF technique high accuracy rate is achieved at a small number of iterations.

MeSH terms: Algorithms*; Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted/methods*; Models, Theoretical*; Pattern Recognition, Automated/methods*; Stochastic Processes; Information Storage and Retrieval/methods*; Support Vector Machine
Fulltext Generalized equilibrium problem with mixed relaxed monotonicity

Rizvi HA, Kılıçman A, Ahmad R

ScientificWorldJournal, 2014;2014:807324.
PMID: 25121137 DOI: 10.1155/2014/807324

We extend the concept of relaxed α-monotonicity to mixed relaxed α-β-monotonicity. The concept of mixed relaxed α-β-monotonicity is more general than many existing concepts of monotonicities. Finally, we apply this concept and well known KKM-theory to obtain the solution of generalized equilibrium problem.

MeSH terms: Algorithms*; Models, Theoretical*; Mathematical Concepts*
Job satisfaction, organisation commitment and retention in the public workforce: a survey among pharmacists in Malaysia

Chua GN, Yee LJ, Sim BA, Tan KH, Sin NK, Hassali MA, et al.

Int J Pharm Pract, 2014 Aug;22(4):265-74.
PMID: 25121161

The aims of the study were to assess job satisfaction and organisational commitment among pharmacists working in the public sector and its influence on their likelihood to stay within the public workforce.

MeSH terms: Adult; Attitude of Health Personnel*; Cross-Sectional Studies; Female; Humans; Job Satisfaction*; Malaysia; Male; Personnel Turnover; Pharmaceutical Services/manpower; Pharmaceutical Services/organization & administration*; Pharmacists/psychology*; Surveys and Questionnaires; Public Sector
Fulltext Is Plasmodium vivax malaria a severe malaria?: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Naing C, Whittaker MA, Nyunt Wai V, Mak JW

PLoS Negl Trop Dis, 2014 Aug;8(8):e3071.
PMID: 25121491 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0003071

BACKGROUND: Plasmodium vivax is one of the major species of malaria infecting humans. Although emphasis on P. falciparum is appropriate, the burden of vivax malaria should be given due attention. This study aimed to synthesize the evidence on severe malaria in P. vivax infection compared with that in P. falciparum infection.
METHODS/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We searched relevant studies in electronic databases. The main outcomes required for inclusion in the review were mortality, severe malaria (SM) and severe anaemia (SA). The methodological quality of the included studies was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Overall, 26 studies were included. The main meta-analysis was restricted to the high quality studies. Eight studies (n = 27490) compared the incidence of SM between P. vivax infection and P. falciparum mono-infection; a comparable incidence was found in infants (OR: 0.45, 95% CI:0.04-5.68, I2:98%), under 5 year age group (OR: 2.06, 95% CI: 0.83-5.1, I2:83%), the 5-15 year-age group (OR: 0.6, 95% CI: 0.31-1.16, I2:81%) and adults (OR: 0.83, 95% CI: 0.67-1.03, I2:25%). Six studies reported the incidences of SA in P. vivax infection and P. falciparum mono-infection; a comparable incidence of SA was found among infants (OR: 3.47, 95%:0.64-18.94, I2: 92%), the 5-15 year-age group (OR:0.71, 95% CI: 0.06-8.57, I2:82%). This was significantly lower in adults (OR:0.75, 95% CI: 0.62-0.92, I2:0%). Five studies (n = 71079) compared the mortality rate between vivax malaria and falciparum malaria. A lower rate of mortality was found in infants with vivax malaria (OR:0.61, 95% CI:0.5-0.76, I2:0%), while this was comparable in the 5-15 year- age group (OR: 0.43, 95% CI:0.06-2.91, I2:84%) and the children of unspecified-age group (OR: 0.77, 95% CI:0.59-1.01, I2:0%).
CONCLUSION: Overall, the present analysis identified that the incidence of SM in patients infected with P. vivax was considerable, indicating that P. vivax is a major cause of SM. Awareness of the clinical manifestations of vivax malaria should prompt early detection. Subsequent treatment and monitoring of complications can be life-saving.

MeSH terms: Adolescent; Adult; Anemia/epidemiology; Child; Child, Preschool; Chloroquine/therapeutic use; Drug Resistance; Humans; Infant; Respiratory Distress Syndrome, Adult/epidemiology; Malaria, Falciparum/epidemiology; Malaria, Vivax/complications; Malaria, Vivax/drug therapy; Malaria, Vivax/mortality; Malaria, Vivax/epidemiology*
Fulltext Disease progression in Plasmodium knowlesi malaria is linked to variation in invasion gene family members

Ahmed AM, Pinheiro MM, Divis PC, Siner A, Zainudin R, Wong IT, et al.

PLoS Negl Trop Dis, 2014 Aug;8(8):e3086.
PMID: 25121807 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0003086

Emerging pathogens undermine initiatives to control the global health impact of infectious diseases. Zoonotic malaria is no exception. Plasmodium knowlesi, a malaria parasite of Southeast Asian macaques, has entered the human population. P. knowlesi, like Plasmodium falciparum, can reach high parasitaemia in human infections, and the World Health Organization guidelines for severe malaria list hyperparasitaemia among the measures of severe malaria in both infections. Not all patients with P. knowlesi infections develop hyperparasitaemia, and it is important to determine why. Between isolate variability in erythrocyte invasion, efficiency seems key. Here we investigate the idea that particular alleles of two P. knowlesi erythrocyte invasion genes, P. knowlesi normocyte binding protein Pknbpxa and Pknbpxb, influence parasitaemia and human disease progression. Pknbpxa and Pknbpxb reference DNA sequences were generated from five geographically and temporally distinct P. knowlesi patient isolates. Polymorphic regions of each gene (approximately 800 bp) were identified by haplotyping 147 patient isolates at each locus. Parasitaemia in the study cohort was associated with markers of disease severity including liver and renal dysfunction, haemoglobin, platelets and lactate, (r = ≥ 0.34, p = <0.0001 for all). Seventy-five and 51 Pknbpxa and Pknbpxb haplotypes were resolved in 138 (94%) and 134 (92%) patient isolates respectively. The haplotypes formed twelve Pknbpxa and two Pknbpxb allelic groups. Patients infected with parasites with particular Pknbpxa and Pknbpxb alleles within the groups had significantly higher parasitaemia and other markers of disease severity. Our study strongly suggests that P. knowlesi invasion gene variants contribute to parasite virulence. We focused on two invasion genes, and we anticipate that additional virulent loci will be identified in pathogen genome-wide studies. The multiple sustained entries of this diverse pathogen into the human population must give cause for concern to malaria elimination strategists in the Southeast Asian region.

MeSH terms: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Protozoan Proteins/genetics*; Disease Progression; Parasitemia/genetics; Parasitemia/parasitology; Young Adult
Fulltext EGFR mutations in Asian patients with advanced lung adenocarcinoma

Liam CK, Pang YK, Poh ME

J Thorac Oncol, 2014 Sep;9(9):e70-1.
PMID: 25122441 DOI: 10.1097/JTO.0000000000000251
MeSH terms: Adenocarcinoma/genetics*; Adenocarcinoma, Bronchiolo-Alveolar/genetics*; Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung/genetics*; Female; Humans; Lung Neoplasms/genetics*; Male; Mutation/genetics*; Receptor, Epidermal Growth Factor/genetics*; Asian Continental Ancestry Group/genetics*
Fulltext EGFR mutation detection by polymerase chain reaction-direct sequencing and allele-specific real-time PCR

Liam CK, Wong CK, Tan JL

J Thorac Oncol, 2014 Sep;9(9):e71-2.
PMID: 25122442 DOI: 10.1097/JTO.0000000000000261
MeSH terms: Adenocarcinoma/genetics*; Female; Humans; Lung Neoplasms/genetics*; Male; Mutation*; Receptor, Epidermal Growth Factor/genetics*; Protein Kinase Inhibitors/therapeutic use*; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction/methods*
Fulltext Genetic alterations of chromosome 8 genes in oral cancer

Yong ZW, Zaini ZM, Kallarakkal TG, Karen-Ng LP, Rahman ZA, Ismail SM, et al.

Sci Rep, 2014;4:6073.
PMID: 25123227 DOI: 10.1038/srep06073

The clinical relevance of DNA copy number alterations in chromosome 8 were investigated in oral cancers. The copy numbers of 30 selected genes in 33 OSCC patients were detected using the multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) technique. Amplifications of the EIF3E gene were found in 27.3% of the patients, MYC in 18.2%, RECQL4 in 15.2% and MYBL1 in 12.1% of patients. The most frequent gene losses found were the GATA4 gene (24.2%), FGFR1 gene (24.2%), MSRA (21.2) and CSGALNACT1 (12.1%). The co-amplification of EIF3E and RECQL4 was found in 9% of patients and showed significant association with alcohol drinkers. There was a significant association between the amplification of EIF3E gene with non-betel quid chewers and the negative lymph node status. EIF3E amplifications did not show prognostic significance on survival. Our results suggest that EIF3E may have a role in the carcinogenesis of OSCC in non-betel quid chewers.

MeSH terms: Carcinoma, Squamous Cell/genetics*; Chromosome Aberrations; Chromosomes, Human, Pair 8/genetics*; Female; Humans; Male; Mouth Neoplasms/genetics*; N-Acetylgalactosaminyltransferases/genetics; Gene Dosage/genetics*; GATA4 Transcription Factor/genetics; Methionine Sulfoxide Reductases/genetics; Receptor, Fibroblast Growth Factor, Type 1/genetics; DNA Copy Number Variations/genetics*
Antifungal prophylaxis in lung transplantation

Neoh CF, Snell G, Levvey B, Morrissey CO, Stewart K, Kong DC

Int J Antimicrob Agents, 2014 Sep;44(3):194-202.
PMID: 25123811 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijantimicag.2014.05.013

Lung transplant (LTx) patients have an increased risk of developing invasive fungal infections (IFIs), particularly invasive aspergillosis. Rapid identification of the causative fungal pathogen, to allow for early administration of appropriate initial antifungal therapy, in LTx patients has been challenging due to the limited sensitivity and specificity of the diagnostic tools. Hence, there is increasing emphasis on antifungal prophylaxis in the LTx setting, given the high mortality rates and substantial cost of treating IFIs. Evidence for the optimal antifungal prophylactic approach in this setting, however, remains scant and inconsistent. This review will briefly discuss the epidemiology, risk factors, timing and clinical manifestations of fungal infections in LTx patients and will focus primarily on the available evidence related to the efficacy, safety and practicality of current prophylactic strategies in LTx recipients as well as challenges and gaps for future research.

MeSH terms: Antifungal Agents/adverse effects; Antifungal Agents/therapeutic use*; Humans; Mycoses/epidemiology; Mycoses/pathology; Mycoses/prevention & control*; Opportunistic Infections/epidemiology; Opportunistic Infections/pathology; Opportunistic Infections/prevention & control*; Risk Factors; Lung Transplantation/adverse effects*; Immunocompromised Host; Chemoprevention/adverse effects; Chemoprevention/methods*
Fulltext Descriptive epidemiology of colorectal cancer in University Malaya Medical Centre, 2001 to 2010

Magaji BA, Moy FM, Roslani AC, Law CW

Asian Pac J Cancer Prev, 2014;15(15):6059-64.
PMID: 25124558

BACKGROUND: Colorectal cancer is the second most frequent cancer in Malaysia. Nevertheless, there is little information on treatment and outcomes nationally. We aimed to determine the demographic, clinical and treatment characteristics of colorectal cancer patients treated at the University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) as part of a larger project on survival and quality of life outcomes.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Medical records of 1,212 patients undergoing treatment in UMMC between January 2001 and December 2010 were reviewed. A retrospective-prospective cohort study design was used. Research tools included the National Cancer Patient Registration form. Statistical analysis included means, standard deviations (SD), proportions, chi square, t-test/ ANOVA. P-value significance was set at 0.05.

RESULTS: The male: female ratio was 1.2:1. The mean age was 62.1 (SD12.4) years. Patients were predominantly Chinese (67%), then Malays (18%), Indians (13%) and others (2%). Malays were younger than Chinese and Indians (mean age 57 versus 62 versus 62 years, p<0.001). More females (56%) had colon cancers compared to males (44%) (p=0.022). Malays (57%) had more rectal cancer compared to Chinese (45%) and Indians (49%) (p=0.004). Dukes' stage data weres available in 67%, with Dukes' C and D accounting for 64%. Stage was not affected by age, gender, ethnicity or tumor site. Treatment modalities included surgery alone (40%), surgery and chemo/radiotherapy 32%, chemo and radiotherapy (8%) and others (20%).

CONCLUSIONS: Significant ethnic differences in age and site distribution, if verified in population-based settings, would support implementation of preventive measures targeting those with the greatest need, at the right age.

MeSH terms: Adult; Aged; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Humans; Malaysia/epidemiology; Male; Middle Aged; Prognosis; Prospective Studies; Quality of Life*; Retrospective Studies; Time Factors; Universities; Colorectal Neoplasms/epidemiology*; Colorectal Neoplasms/pathology; Neoplasm Grading
Five-year survival and median survival time of nasopharyngeal carcinoma in Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia

Siti-Azrin AH, Norsa'adah B, Naing NN

Asian Pac J Cancer Prev, 2014;15(15):6455-9.
PMID: 25124642

BACKGROUND: Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is the fourth most common cancer in Malaysia. The objective of this study was to determine the five-year survival rate and median survival time of NPC patients in Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM).
METHODS: One hundred and thirty four NPC cases confirmed by histopathology in Hospital USM between 1st January 1998 and 31st December 2007 that fulfilled the inclusion and exclusion criteria were retrospectively reviewed. Survival time of NPC patients were estimated by Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. Log-rank tests were performed to compare survival of cases among presenting symptoms, WHO type, TNM classification and treatment modalities.
RESULTS: The overall five-year survival rate of NPC patients was 38.0% (95% confidence interval (CI): 29.1, 46.9). The overall median survival time of NPC patients was 31.30 months (95%CI: 23.76, 38.84). The significant factors that altered the survival rate and time were age (p=0.041), cranial nerve involvement (p=0.012), stage (p=0.002), metastases (p=0.008) and treatment (p<0.001).
CONCLUSION: The median survival of NPC patients is significantly longer for age≤50 years, no cranial nerve involvement, and early stage and is dependent on treatment modalities.

MeSH terms: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Child; Combined Modality Therapy; Cranial Nerve Diseases/mortality*; Cranial Nerve Diseases/pathology; Cranial Nerve Diseases/therapy; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Humans; Lymphatic Metastasis; Malaysia; Male; Middle Aged; Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms/mortality*; Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms/pathology; Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms/therapy; Neoplasm Staging; Prognosis; Retrospective Studies; Survival Rate; Young Adult
Enlightened oncologists can provide quality cancer care at reduced costs

Devi CR

J Surg Oncol, 2014 Nov;110(6):643-4.
PMID: 25125148 DOI: 10.1002/jso.23746
MeSH terms: Cost-Benefit Analysis; Decision Making; Humans; Neoplasms/economics*; Neoplasms/therapy; Quality Assurance, Health Care*; United States; Health Care Costs*; Unnecessary Procedures
Testosterone decreases fluid and chloride secretions in the uterus of adult female rats via down-regulating cystic fibrosis transmembrane regulator (CFTR) expression and functional activity

Mohd Mokhtar H, Giribabu N, Kassim N, Muniandy S, Salleh N

J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol, 2014 Oct;144 Pt B:361-72.
PMID: 25125390 DOI: 10.1016/j.jsbmb.2014.08.007

Estrogen is known to stimulate uterine fluid and Cl(-) secretion via CFTR. This study investigated testosterone effect on these changes in a rat model.

MeSH terms: Cyclic AMP/metabolism; Animals; Chlorides/metabolism*; Estrogens/pharmacology; Female; Testosterone/pharmacology*; Uterus/drug effects*; Uterus/metabolism; Uterus/pathology; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator/genetics; Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator/metabolism*

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